At locations where oil or gas wells are being drilled, a number of flammable gases may be present, including mixtures of oxygen, methane, ethane, propane, hydrogen sulfide and others. Similar potentially dangerous environmental conditions exist in locations in which petroleum products are being recovered, refined or processed. Likewise, in industrial areas where large quantities of dust are present, such as in grain handling facilities or pulp and paper mills, hazardous environmental conditions may exist. Standardized classifications for the various types of hazardous locations have been adopted and assigned by regulatory agencies according to the nature and type of hazard that is generally present or that may occasionally be present.
Because electrical components, by their nature, may generate heat and sparks sufficient to ignite a flammable gas or other flammable mixture under even normal operating conditions, such components must be carefully selected and installed when used in an area that is classified as hazardous. More specifically, the components must exceed certain minimum standards as to such characteristics as power consumption, operating temperature, current and voltage requirements, and energy storage capabilities. These standards are also established by regulatory authorities and vary depending upon the particular hazardous environment.
Certain electrical devices are intrinsically safe. An intrinsically safe device may be generally described as a device that during normal operation, as well as operation during any fault condition, cannot cause a spark or achieve a temperature sufficient to ignite the gas or other substance that is present and that causes the area to be classified. If a device is not intrinsically safe, other means must be provided to ensure that the device cannot serve as a source of ignition. Typically where a device is not intrinsically safe, it may be made safe by housing it in an explosion proof enclosure, or by enclosing the device in some other type of enclosure and purging the enclosure with "clean" air. An explosion proof box or enclosure is one that will prevent any explosion that might occur within the box from causing the atmosphere outside the box to ignite. Purging an enclosure with a continuing source of clean air prevents the air that is laden with the hazardous substance from entering the box, such that a spark or elevated temperature of the component within the box cannot ignite the hazardous atmosphere.
Although areas that are classified as hazardous are prevalent in many industries, the problems of powering and communicating with electrical devices in hazardous areas are particularly acute in the drilling industry. In drilling a well, a great deal of equipment is located in close proximity to the well head, including mud pumps, compressors, mud pits and other subsystems associated with drilling, Many of these areas around a drilling site are classified as hazardous, and thus special precautions are required with respect to the electrical communication and power distribution systems. To efficiently and safely control the drilling operation, the driller will require a system having sensors positioned in a number of locations in the hazardous area. These sensors will transmit needed data to a computer which can process that data and transmit important information to the driller by means of a driller's console or monitor. By viewing the information on the driller's monitor, the driller can then make whatever changes are appropriate to the system to assure safe and continuing operation.
The driller's monitor is typically required to be very close to the well head and thus is located in a hazardous area. Historically, driller consoles have varied with respect to the amount of information displayed and type of indicators used. In the past, when a simple meter or gage provided all the information that was required, the device could sometimes be made intrinsically safe. However, due to the sophistication of today's drilling practices, consoles or monitors usually must provide a driller with a tremendous amount of information concerning the location and orientation of the drill bit, the mud flow rates, downhole pressures, as well as the status of the other systems supporting the drilling operation. Additionally, the console must permit the driller to issue commands or make inquiries through the use of a keyboard or key pad, and must display all the needed information by means of a CRT or other sophisticated monitor. These modern driller's consoles or monitors have a substantial power requirement that has prevented them from being made intrinsically safe, and that requires that they be housed in an explosion proof or a purged enclosure. Due to its size and extreme weight, an explosion proof enclosure is typically not practical for large consoles. Accordingly, is has been the usual practice to house today's monitor in a purged enclosure.
There are several distinct and significant disadvantages associated with this conventional practice. First, purged air is typically supplied in a form that includes an oil mist that has been added to the system to assure proper operation of air compressors. The oil mist is both a nuisance and, over time, can have a detrimental effect on the electronic components. Additionally, and significantly, purge air has often proved to be unreliable due to various mechanical failures. When the purge air is lost, the system must automatically be shut down to avoid the possibility of ignition of flammable gases. The driller has a tremendous financial investment in the operation at the drilling site such that even a short shutdown is extremely costly.
Furthermore, purge air systems require the installation of piping from the air source to the monitor, and to other devices receiving the purged air. This investment is one that the driller would prefer not to make because it typically will be removing its equipment and personnel from the drilling site after a relatively short length of time. Thus the semi-permanent nature of installing pipe, the extra time involved in installing the piping, and the additional monitoring and backup equipment necessary to ensure the integrity of the purged air system are all costly additional investments the driller would prefer to avoid if an alternative was available.
Additional drawbacks or compromises exist or are required in the conventional data acquisition systems currently used by drillers. As mentioned above, various sensors are positioned about the drilling site in hazardous locations. Electrical conductors, which provide power and a communication means to and from the sensors, are routed from each sensor to a junction box which is also located in the hazardous area. These junction boxes receive power from and communication signals to and from another box that is located outside the hazardous area and which includes an intrinsically safe barrier (ISB) for each of the sensors interconnected through that box. Conventional ISBs limit the current and voltage that is conducted to a sensor to ensure that the power reaching the sensor is not of a magnitude that might permit the device to ignite the atmosphere in the hazardous area. Using this conventional system, one ISB is required for each sensor. Accordingly, it is typical practice to interconnect each junction box with the box containing the ISBs by means of a relatively bulky and expensive multiconductor cable. Likewise, another multiconductor cable typically interconnects the box containing the IBSs to a computer or other central controller which is located outside the hazardous area.
As is obvious, the conventional arrangement thus described is again costly and time consuming to install. First, a substantial number of ISBs will be required given that a typical drilling system may monitor twenty or more different parameters. Further, the multiconductor cables interconnecting the ISB box to the central controller and to the various junction boxes are relatively heavy and bulky. It can be time consuming and difficult to route and install the required conduit and then pull the cables in the installed conduits.
Further, the driller's equipment is typically used sequentially in a number of separate jobs such that it is installed, dismantled and reinstalled on a fairly frequent basis. Accordingly, running piping for purge air, routing and locating bulky and heavy multiconductor cables and conduits, and handling and installing heavy explosion proof enclosures is typically not practical and, at a minimum, undesirable.
Additional drawbacks to conventional data acquisition systems also exist. Due to the nature of a drilling site, the field sensors and cables are typically installed in an electrically noisy environment. Even with shielding, the multiconductor cables are vulnerable to stray noises generated in the area and, until the desired signals reach the central controller outside the hazardous area, there is generally no means provided for filtering or conditioning the signals. Finally, given that conventional systems merely retrieve field-generated signals and transmits them all to the central controller for processing, the central controller may be heavily loaded with tasks associated with data processing and calculation.
Accordingly, despite the fact that there currently exists workable data acquisition systems for use in and about hazardous environments, there remains a need for safe, less cumbersome and low cost means for acquiring and manipulating data from the various sensors. More specifically, an intrinsically safe driller's monitor, one not requiring an explosion proof enclosure or purge air and the significant drawbacks associated with such a system, would be particularly welcomed by the industry. Furthermore, a system which could provide power to the various sensors and acquire data therefrom without requiring the conventional number of ISBs would be a significant advance in this technology. Also, a system which would reduce the communication system's susceptibility to electrical noise and that would be less burdensome and costly to install, dismantle and transport would be especially welcomed by the drilling industry.